Purchasing Additional Contract - BCV booking June / August?

[fearthisinc]

So we currently own 425 points at Animal Kingdom.. We were thinking of purchasing an additional contract and can't decide which way to go.. In one aspect we feel we get the bigger bang for the buck sticking with Animal Kingdom or even picking up Saratoga Springs points... However, I am also leaning towards the purchase of a Beach Club contract.. I have been eyeing up some on the market, and thinking I could possibly snag one for $120-$125/point.. I tried booking BCV at 5 months out for an August trip and nothing was available.. I am curious what everyone has been experiencing with booking Beach Club Studio during June or August at 7 months out.. Our current August trip was booked towards the end of March so it was relatively last minute.. I know Beach Club is usually prime for October-January as far as DVC goes.. I would like to be able to "guarantee" at least 1 week during the summer at Beach Club each year and with a home resort booking window I feel you have a way better chance.. However, I haven't followed Beach Club booking patterns during the summer to know if its worth the premium to go for BCV points..

Also.. I was just curious.. Can you book at 11 months out at your home resort.. Then at 7 months have Member Services use points from non-home resort to cover the reservation and put the orginal points back? For example.. I book BCV 11 months out and use 100 points.. At 7 months can I call and have member services take 100 Animal Kingdom points to use for the BCV reservation? And then return the 100 BCV points back?

 

[disneynutz]

If you want to guarantee a studio reservation at BCV, buy there. A one bedroom, maybe a better chance at 7 months but don't count on it.

Bill

 

[fearthisinc]

Yea.. I was looking through older posts and that seems to be the general idea.. I also found a post back from 2015 that had availability trends which said it was spotty/mostly during the times we travel.. However I know the renting trend has picked up a lot over the past year or 2.. So figured I would see what the overall consensus was with more recent trends..

 

[disneynutz]

Yea.. I was looking through older posts and that seems to be the general idea.. I also found a post back from 2015 that had availability trends which said it was spotty/mostly during the times we travel.. However I know the renting trend has picked up a lot over the past year or 2.. So figured I would see what the overall consensus was with more recent trends..

And you can expect it to get worse as thousands of owners are added to the DVC system all wanting to book at 7 months.

Bill

 

[Bing Showei]

Yea.. I was looking through older posts and that seems to be the general idea.. I also found a post back from 2015 that had availability trends which said it was spotty/mostly during the times we travel.. However I know the renting trend has picked up a lot over the past year or 2.. So figured I would see what the overall consensus was with more recent trends..

That’s @skier_pete ’s charts and he can speak further to BCV specifically today.

In general, studios have gotten harder to book at 7 months since 2015. I was able to book a block of 4 days towards the end of August at exactly 7-months, but that was for a one bedroom, and even for that, days were falling off the RAT left and right around my August days of interest. BCV is relatively small (vs. say SSR, or OKW) and people buy there to stay there (vs. say SSR, or OKW). In addition to Fall Frenzy, the resort is popular in the summer time (considered “low DVC” time because point costs are higher) because SAB is like a private water park exclusive to resort guests.

In terms of spotty/mostly, those are broad generalizations on the charts. If you are looking for a solid block of days, don’t count on anything but a green “Open.” “Spotty” could be as few as three days over a 15 day period. “Mostly” could be as few as 8 scattered days over a two week period. Not great odds.

If you are looking to stay in a a specific resort in a studio, buy there. If trends bear out and continue as they are, things will only get worse.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

You cannot swap in non-home points at 7 months unless the reservation would be bookable at 7 months.

 

[CMNJ]

Also.. I was just curious.. Can you book at 11 months out at your home resort.. Then at 7 months have Member Services use points from non-home resort to cover the reservation and put the orginal points back? For example.. I book BCV 11 months out and use 100 points.. At 7 months can I call and have member services take 100 Animal Kingdom points to use for the BCV reservation? And then return the 100 BCV points back?

I have seen a couple of posts over the years of others claiming they were able to do this but I absolutely would not count on this. It clearly violates home resort privileges (if the room was not avail to book at 7 months) and the likelihood of this continuing indefinitely is not worth basig your purchase on (again this is assuming the other posters I’ve seen were in fact telling the truth).

 

[bobbiwoz]

You cannot swap in non-home points at 7 months unless the reservation would be bookable at 7 months.

This.

 

[fearthisinc]

You cannot swap in non-home points at 7 months unless the reservation would be bookable at 7 months.

It clearly violates home resort privileges (if the room was not avail to book at 7 months)

But my thinking is that "technically" you would be cancelling the original reservation.. So then in fact the room would open up and become available, albeit for a few seconds.. So in essence the room would be available at the 7 month window... I mean the other option would just be open two window browsers.. In 1 you cancel your reservation and in the other you have the booking window open.. Unless you are just extremely unlucky and the second you cancel someone happens to book the exact same dates.. Because even if someone has your room wait-listed, they would need to have the exact dates listed for it to "automatically" process.. And if my understanding is correct, wait-listed rooms are not automatically processed immediately.. there is a delay.. Which if that is the case, your only chance of losing the reservation is if someone happens to be searching the RAT at the exact moment you hit cancel and happens to be looking for your resort and same dates in the seconds it takes to hit confirm in the second window.... So it would pretty much be the same thing as them just swapping the points over..

 

[_auroraborealis_]

But my thinking is that "technically" you would be cancelling the original reservation.. So then in fact the room would open up and become available, albeit for a few seconds.. So in essence the room would be available at the 7 month window...

The unit does not return immediately to inventory, and if the unit is wait listed it may never return to inventory. Processing is not that quick for a cancel.

If this worked, people would be doing it all the time.

You haven't just figured out an exploit that other owners have been sitting on (or haven't tried) for years in the online booking era. This does not work.

 

[CMNJ]

Could you get lucky cancelling and rebookingwoth your other contract-perhaps as anything is possible. You asked however about having member services swap out the points which is a reallocation process. When MS does this they do not release the room back into inventory they simply sub in the points you want to use for the points you previously used to book it. MS commonly does this and I have had this done a few times myself. However what they have done for me was not cancel but simply substitute banked or borrowed points from a cancelled reservation for current UY points in an existing reservation. Then I was able to bank the current UY points. This prevented them from expiring due to a cancelled trip/waitlist coming through that used less points.

 

[CMNJ]

But my thinking is that "technically" you would be cancelling the original reservation.. So then in fact the room would open up and become available, albeit for a few seconds.. So in essence the room would be available at the 7 month window... I mean the other option would just be open two window browsers.. In 1 you cancel your reservation and in the other you have the booking window open.. Unless you are just extremely unlucky and the second you cancel someone happens to book the exact same dates.. Because even if someone has your room wait-listed, they would need to have the exact dates listed for it to "automatically" process.. And if my understanding is correct, wait-listed rooms are not automatically processed immediately.. there is a delay.. Which if that is the case, your only chance of losing the reservation is if someone happens to be searching the RAT at the exact moment you hit cancel and happens to be looking for your resort and same dates in the seconds it takes to hit confirm in the second window.... So it would pretty much be the same thing as them just swapping the points over..

Also about your point that the wait list has to match exactly-if someone (or more than 1 person) has a few of your dates waitlisted then some but not all of your reservation may be released back into inventory.

 

[Debbie Jean]

Although I have scored a studio at Beach Club at exactly 7 months in July I would never count on availability. Stormalong Bay makes this location extremely popular in the summer months.

 

[skier_pete]

That’s @skier_pete ’s charts and he can speak further to BCV specifically today.

In general, studios have gotten harder to book at 7 months since 2015. I was able to book a block of 4 days towards the end of August at exactly 7-months, but that was for a one bedroom, and even for that, days were falling off the RAT left and right around my August days of interest. BCV is relatively small (vs. say SSR, or OKW) and people buy there to stay there (vs. say SSR, or OKW). In addition to Fall Frenzy, the resort is popular in the summer time (considered “low DVC” time because point costs are higher) because SAB is like a private water park exclusive to resort guests.

In terms of spotty/mostly, those are broad generalizations on the charts. If you are looking for a solid block of days, don’t count on anything but a green “Open.” “Spotty” could be as few as three days over a 15 day period. “Mostly” could be as few as 8 scattered days over a two week period. Not great odds.

If you are looking to stay in a a specific resort in a studio, buy there. If trends bear out and continue as they are, things will only get worse.

Did I hear someone mention my name? @Bing Showei knows what he's talking about because he is helping me update those charts. And he's right about Beach Club, the fact is it is very hard to get into at ANY time of year in a studio. It's gotten harder in the last 3 years - and it's hard pretty much summer through to December. 1-bedrooms are different - MUCH easier to get, but Beach Club definitely is the 2nd hardest get (next to GF). If you want to consistently stay at BCV in a studio, you are better off buying points there. Understand the cost is high - not only paying as you say $125 per point, but those points are only good for 24 more years - not like say AKV or SSR which give you 40 more years. But only you can determine if it's worth it to you.

But my thinking is that "technically" you would be cancelling the original reservation.. So then in fact the room would open up and become available, albeit for a few seconds.. So in essence the room would be available at the 7 month window... I mean the other option would just be open two window browsers.. In 1 you cancel your reservation and in the other you have the booking window open.. Unless you are just extremely unlucky and the second you cancel someone happens to book the exact same dates.. Because even if someone has your room wait-listed, they would need to have the exact dates listed for it to "automatically" process.. And if my understanding is correct, wait-listed rooms are not automatically processed immediately.. there is a delay.. Which if that is the case, your only chance of losing the reservation is if someone happens to be searching the RAT at the exact moment you hit cancel and happens to be looking for your resort and same dates in the seconds it takes to hit confirm in the second window.... So it would pretty much be the same thing as them just swapping the points over..

This is all "technically" right, but problems with it. First off - a CM won't do this for you. As others have said, it's basically circumventing the 7-month window, and if this was commonly done, you would see it posted all over the place on here. Instead you see the opposite - CMs won't do it.

You COULD try doing it yourself - cancel the reservation and then try and pick up the dates again with new points. As you say, in theory the reservation would only be available for a minute or two. What's the odds of someone snatching it up? Well, the problem is, when you cancel a reservation, it doesn't instantly go back into the system. I've seen this first hand when I DID cancel a reservation - and then tried to watch for it to show up...I never saw up as open rooms. Does that mean the waitlist took it? Or did someone with faster fingers see it and grab it? Who knows?

Again, the fact is this: If this commonly worked, you would hear about people doing it. The example I'll use is "walking a reservation" (If you don't know what that is, I would suggest reading up on it.) "Walking a reservation" is a thing because it works, and it works consistently. There's debates about whether its ethical, or even necessary, but it clearly works. What you are suggesting is never talked about, and therefore I would suggest that means it either doesn't work at all, or doesn't work consistently. The more likely scenario is that you end up with no reservation at all.

 

[skier_pete]

I should add, that we just (in February) scored 4 nights at Beach Club at the end of August. However, I jumped through some hoops to do so - as my DD14 really wanted to stay there:

1) We moved our trip back a week, when the original week was unavailable at Beach Club well in advance.
2) I booked the entire week we were going (Sat - Sun) at Beach Club in order to block out the 4 days I wanted at the end of the trip.
3) Then 4 days later, I cancelled the first 4 days at Beach Club. (I then booked those first 4 days at our home resort - AKV.)

Even doing this - when I booked the dates at Beach Club - I did it right at 8 AM on the dot. By 8:03, the room availability was gone.

 

[fearthisinc]

Thanks for all the input.. I wasn't trying to start a war with the exchanging points idea.. I was simply curious if they would do it.. As far as canceling and rebooking.. Maybe its a luck of the draw.. We recently cancelled a reservation at Animal Kingdom Standard Studio and opted to get the Savannah view. Prior to cancelling our original reservation, a few days that we had in the standard were booked solid and showed as sold out.. As soon as we cancelled, I went back through the RAT and the days were now available.